The Oscar Quest: Facts, Trivia and other Miscellanea

This is just a random collection of facts and such that I’ve acquired over all my years of paying attention to the Academy Awards.

If you know me — you know that if there’s one thing I’m full of (that’s not puns) — it’s facts and trivia. I am insanely good at knowing when films came out, and random facts about them. Throw me a random Oscar category (from the Quest). I’ll tell you what was nominated. Give me the character name of someone nominated for Best Actor or Best Actress since 1970. I’ll get it right 98% of the time. For some reason, I’m like a savant for this stuff.

Plus, people like trivia. They like reading all those little bits and pieces of facts. It’s great when you know something that you know other people don’t know and you can just whip it out — “You know that film that won only got nominated because the other one got disqualified, right?” You feel good, and you sound smart. Plus we all like to tell what we know to other people.

So here are a bunch of facts and shit (* official title) about the Oscars. I’m sure more will be added whenever I get them/are told them/give a shit. You know how it works. Also, these are in absolutely no order. I just wrote down what I remembered, found stuff, looked stuff up and threw it in a Word document, and am now simply copying, pasting and dressing it up a bit. I’m not classy. There’s a reason this isn’t the A-Movie Blog.

First Oscar-winners in color:

Best Picture: 1939, Gone With the Wind (1929, The Broadway Melody had some sequences in two-strip Technicolor)

Best Actor: 1951, Humphrey Bogart, The African Queen

Best Actress: 1939, Vivien Leigh, Gone With the Wind

Best Supporting Actor: 1938, Walter Brennan, Kentucky

Best Supporting Actress: 1939, Hattie McDaniel, Gone With the Wind

Best Director: 1939, Victor Fleming, Gone With the Wind

Films that won the most Oscars:

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003, 11 Oscars (out of 11 nominations)

Ben-Hur, 1959, 11 Oscars (out of 12 nominations)

Titanic, 1997, 11 Oscars (out of 14 nominations)

West Side Story, 1961, 10 Oscars (out of 11 nominations)

Gigi, 1958, 9 Oscars (out of 9 nominations)

The Last Emperor, 1987, 9 Oscars (out of 9 nominations)

The English Patient, 1996, 9 Oscars (out of 12 nominations)

Slumdog Millionaire, 2008, 8 Oscars (out of 10 nominations)

Cabaret, 1972, 8 Oscars (out of 10 nominations) *

Amadeus, 1984, 8 Oscars (out of 11 nominations)

Gandhi, 1982, 8 Oscars (out of 11 nominations)

My Fair Lady, 1964, 8 Oscars (out of 12 nominations)

On the Waterfront, 1954, 8 Oscars (out of 12 nominations)

Gone With the Wind, 1939, 8 Oscars (out of 13 nominations)

From Here to Eternity, 1953, 8 Oscars (out of 13 nominations)

The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946, 7 Oscars (out of 8 nominations)

The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957, 7 Oscars (out of 8 nominations)

Going My Way, 1944, 7 Oscars (out of 10 nominations)

Lawrence of Arabia, 1962, 7 Oscars (out of 10 nominations)

Patton, 1970, 7 Oscars (out of 10 nominations)

The Sting, 1973, 7 Oscars (out of 10 nominations)

Out of Africa, 1985, 7 Oscars (out of 11 nominations)

Dances with Wolves, 1990, 7 Oscars (out of 12 nominations)

Schindler’s List, 1993, 7 Oscars (out of 12 nominations)

Shakespeare in Love, 1998, 7 Oscars (out of 13 nominations)

Gravity, 2013, 7 Oscars (out of 10 nominations) *

* DID NOT win Best Picture

Most Oscar nominations (film):

All About Eve, 1950, 14 nominations (6 wins, Best Picture)

Titanic, 1997, 14 nominations (11 wins, Best Picture)

Gone With the Wind, 1939, 13 nominations (8 wins, Best Picture)

From Here to Eternity, 1953, 13 nominations (8 wins, Best Picture)

Shakespeare in Love, 1998, 13 nominations (7 wins, Best Picture)

Forrest Gump, 1994, 13 nominations (6 wins, Best Picture)

Chicago, 2002, 13 nominations (6 wins, Best Picture)

Mary Poppins, 1964, 13 nominations (5 wins)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966, 13 nominations (5 wins)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2003, 13 nominations (4 wins)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2008, 13 nominations (3 wins)

Ben-Hur, 1959, 12 nominations (11 wins, Best Picture)

The English Patient, 1996, 12 nominations (9 wins, Best Picture)

On the Waterfront, 1954, 12 nominations (8 wins, Best Picture)

My Fair Lady, 1964, 12 nominations (8 wins, Best Picture)

Dances with Wolves, 1990, 12 nominations (7 wins, Best Picture)

Schindler’s List, 1993, 12 nominations (7 wins, Best Picture)

Mrs. Miniver, 1942, 12 nominations (6 wins, Best Picture)

Gladiator, 2000, 12 nominations (5 wins, Best Picture)

The Song of Bernadette, 1943, 12 nominations (4 wins)

A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951, 12 nominations (4 wins, Best Picture)

The King’s Speech, 2010, 12 nominations (4 wins, Best Picture)

Reds, 1981, 12 nominations (3 wins)

Lincoln, 2012, 12 nominations (2 wins)

Johnny Belinda, 1948, 12 nominations (1 win)

Becket, 1964, 12 nominations (1 win)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003, 11 nominations (11 wins, Best Picture)

(Also of note: All three films to win the “Big Five” — Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay — It Happened One Night, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Silence of the Lambs (see how I worked that one in? Worked in the one fact about the Oscars that everyone knows that you have to mention anyway, but you don’t want to say, just because it’s hokey — it’s like exposition), they only won those five awards. Nothing else. That’s fascinating.)

Clean Sweeps (Best Pictures that won every award they were nominated for):

Grant Hotel, 1932, 1 for 1

It Happened One Night, 1934, 5 for 5

Gigi, 1958, 9 for 9

The Last Emperor, 1987, 9 for 9

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003, 11 for 11

Shut Outs (Films with the most nominations that won nothing)

The Turning Point, 1977, 0 for 11

The Color Purple, 1985, 0 for 11

American Hustle, 2013, 0 for 10

True Grit, 2010, 0 for 10

Gangs of New York, 2002, 0 for 10

The Little Foxes, 1941, 0 for 10

Peyton Place, 1957, 0 for 9

Quo Vadis, 1951, 0 for 8

The Nun’s Story, 1959, 0 for 8

The Sand Pebbles, 1966, 0 for 8

The Elephant Man, 1980, 0 for 8

Ragtime, 1981, 0 for 8

The Remains of the Day, 0 for 8

Films That Won Best Picture Without Winning Any Acting Awards:

Wings, 1927-1928

The Broadway Melody, 1928-1929 (nominated for Actress)

All Quiet on the Western Front, 1929-1930

Cimarron, 1931 (nominated for Actor and Actress)

Grand Hotel, 1931-1932

Cavalcade, 1932-1933 (nominated for Actress)

Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935 (nominated for Actor (x3))

You Can’t Take It With You, 1938 (nominated for Supporting Actress)

Rebecca, 1940 (nominated for Actor, Actress and Supporting Actress)

Casablanca, 1943 (nominated for Actor and Supporting Actor)

An American in Paris, 1951

The Greatest Show on Earth, 1952

Around the World in 80 Days, 1956

Gigi, 1958

The Apartment, 1960 (nominated for Actor, Actress and Supporting Actor)

Lawrence of Arabia, 1962 (nominated for Actor and Supporting Actor)

Tom Jones, 1963 (nominated for Actor and Supporting Actress (x3))

The Sound of Music, 1965 (nominated for Actress and Supporting Actress)

(I’m going by the studio we know to have produced and/or distributed the films. Nowadays they award to the producers of the film. I just want to get an idea of which studio put out which nominees.)

Columbia — 12 wins (It Happened One Night, You Can’t Take It With You, All the King’s Men, From Here to Eternity, On the Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, A Man for All Seasons, Oliver!, Kramer vs. Kramer, Gandhi, The Last Emperor)

United Artists — 11 wins (Marty, Around the World in 80 Days, The Apartment, West Side Story, Tom Jones, In the Heat of the Night, Midnight Cowboy, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Rocky, Annie Hall, Rain Man)

Selznick International, in its two wins, only produced the films, and MGM (Gone With the Wind) and United Artists (Rebecca) distributed them. I only credited Selznick with the wins, since we can all agree he was the driving force behind them.

Gladiator and A BeautifulMind were both DreamWorks and Universal. Technically, both won, so I credited both. (Usually I checked distribution, but it seems, on one DreamWorks did domestic and Universal did international, and on the other, it was reversed. So I’m guessing it was pretty even. I just gave it to both.)

Braveheart and Titanic were both Paramount and 20th Century Fox. Both got tallies.

Shakespeare in Love was a joint Miramax/Universal win.

One of the Miramax wins is credited to The Weinstein Co. (The King’s Speech). Since the Weinsteins are the creative force of both entities, I just left it as one name. (They sold Miramax to Disney and started another company. Same people, different name.)

The Paramount Vantage win (No Country for Old Men) was split with Miramax. Both got tallies.

The first Fox Searchlight win (Slumdog Millionaire) was split with Warner Bros. Both got tallies.

Best Picture Nominations By Studio

(There have been exactly 512 Best Picture nominees, including 2013. Some studios were nominated for the same film. The numbers don’t add up. But trust me, they’re all here.)

Warner Bros. — 77 nominations

Disraeli, 42nd Street, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Here Comes the Navy, Captain Blood, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Anthony Adverse, The Story of Louis Pasteur, The Life of Emile Zola, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Four Daughters, Jezebel, Dark Victory, All This and Heaven Too, The Letter, The Maltese Falcon, One Foot in Heaven, Sergeant York, Kings Row, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Casablanca, Watch on the Rhine, Mildred Pierce, Johnny Belinda, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, A Streetcar Named Desire, Mister Roberts, Giant, Sayonara, Auntie Mame, The Nun’s Story, The Sundowners, Fanny, The Music Man, America America, My Fair Lady, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Bonnie and Clyde, Rachel Rachel, A Clockwork Orange, Deliverance, The Emigrants, The Exorcist, The Towering Inferno, Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, The Goodbye Girl, Chariots of Fire, The Right Stuff, The Killing Fields, The Color Purple, The Mission, The Accidental Tourist, Dangerous Liaisons, Driving Miss Daisy, Goodfellas, JFK, Unforgiven, The Fugitive, L.A. Confidential, The Green Mile, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, The Aviator, Good Night and Good Luck, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Michael Clayton, Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Blind Side, Inception, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Argo, Gravity, Her

20th Century Fox — 66 nominations (includes 2 20th Century Films and 7 Fox Films, before they merged — they’re the first nine films. The last two are the 20th Century films)

Seventh Heaven, In Old Arizona, East Lynne, Bad Girl, Cavalcade, State Fair, The White Parade, The House of Rothschild, Les Misérables, In Old Chicago, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Pied Piper, Heaven Can Wait, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Song of Bernadette, Wilson, The Razor’s Edge, Gentleman’s Agreement, Miracle on 34th Street, The Snake Pit, A Letter to Three Wives, Twelve O’Clock High, All About Eve, Decision Before Dawn, The Robe, Three Coins in the Fountain, Love is a Many-Splenored Thing, The King and I, Peyton Place, The Diary of Anne Frank, Sons and Lovers, The Hustler, The Longest Day, Cleopatra, Zorba the Greek, The Sand Pebbles, Doctor Dolittle, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hello Dolly!, Patton, MASH, The French Connection, Sounder, The Towering Inferno, Julia, Star Wars, The Turning Point, An Unmarried Woman, Breaking Away, Norma, The Verdict, Prizzi’s Honor, Broadcast News, Working Girl, Braveheart, Titanic, The Thin Red Line, Moulin Rouge!, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Avatar, Life of Pi, Lincoln

Paramount — 60 nominations

Wings, The Patriot, The Love Parade, Skippy, One Hour with You, Shanghai Express, The Smiling Lieutenant, A Farewell to Arms, She Done Him Wrong, Cleopatra, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, Ruggles of Red Gap, Hold Back the Dawn, Wake Island, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Going My Way, Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, The Heiress, Sunset Boulevard, A Place in the Sun, The Greatest Show on Earth, Roman Holiday, Shane, The Country Girl, The Rose Tattoo, The Ten Commandments, Becket, Alfie, Romeo and Juliet, Love Story, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Chinatown, The Conversation, Nashville, Heaven Can Wait, Ordinary People, The Elephant Man, Atlantic City, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds, Terms of Endearment, Witness, Children of a Lesser God, Fatal Attraction, Ghost, The Godfather Part III, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, The Hours, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Up in the Air, The Fighter, True Grit, Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street

MGM — 57 nominations

The Broadway Melody, The Hollywood Revue of 1929, The Big House, The Divorcee, Trader Horn, Grand Hotel, The Champ, Smilin’ Through, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, The Thin Man, Viva Villa!, Mutiny on the Bounty, Broadway Melody of 1936, David Copperfield, Naughty Marietta, The Great Ziegfeld, Libeled Lady, Romeo and Juliet, San Francisco, A Tale of Two Cities, Captains Courageous, The Good Earth, Boys Town, The Citadel, Pygmalion, Test Pilot, Gone With the Wind, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Ninotchka, The Wizard of Oz, The Philadelphia Story, Blossoms in the Dust, Mrs. Miniver, Random Harvest, The Human Comedy, Madame Curie, Gaslight, Anchors Aweigh, The Yearling, Battleground, Father of the Bride, King Solomon’s Mines, An American in Paris, Quo Vadis, Julius Caesar, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Gigi, Ben-Hur, Mutiny on the Bounty, How the West Was Won, Doctor Zhivago, Network, The Goodbye Girl, Moonstruck

Columbia — 56 nominations

Lady for a Day, It Happened One Night, One Night of Love, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, The Awful Truth, Lost Horizon, You Can’t Take It With You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, 49th Parallel, The Talk of the Town, The More the Merrier, All the King’s Men, Born Yesterday, From Here to Eternity, On the Waterfront, The Caine Mutiny, Picnic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Anatomy of a Murder, The Guns of Navarone, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Ship of Fools, A Man for All Seasons, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Oliver!, Funny Girl, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, Nicholas and Alexandra, Taxi Driver, Midnight Express, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tess, Gandhi, Tootsie, The Big Chill, The Dresser, A Passage to India, A Soldier’s Story, The Last Emperor, Hope and Glory, Awakenings, The Prince of Tides, A Few Good Men, The Remains of the Day, The Shawshank Redemption, Sense and Sensibility, Erin Brockovich, The Social Network, Moneyball, Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty, American Hustle, Captain Phillips

United Artists — 52 nominations

Alibi, The Front Page, Arrowsmith, The Private Life of Henry VIII, The House of Rothschild, Les Misérables, Dodsworth, Dead End, A Star is Born, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, Foreign Correspondant, The Great Dictator, The Long Voyage Home, Our Town, In Which We Serve, Since You Went Away, Spellbound, Henry V, High Noon, Moulin Rouge, Marty, Around the World in 80 Days, 12 Angry Men, Witness for the Prosecution, The Defiant Ones, Separate Tables, Elmer Gantry, West Side Story, Judgment at Nuremberg, Tom Jones, Lilies of the Field, A Thousand Clowns, The Russians are Coming the Russians are Coming, In the Heat of the Night, Midnight Cowboy, Fiddler on the Roof, Lenny, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Rocky, Bound for Glory, Network, Annie Hall, Coming Home, Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, Rain Man, Capote

Universal — 35 nominations

All Quiet on the Western Front, Imitation of Life, Three Smart Girls, One Hundred Men and a Girl, Anne of the Thousand Days, Airport, The Sting, American Graffiti, Jaws, The Deer Hunter, Coal Miner’s Daughter, On Golden Pond, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Missing, Tender Mercies, Out of Africa, Born on the Fourth of July, Field of Dreams, Scent of a Woman, Schindler’s List, In the Name of the Father, Apollo 13, Babe, Shakespeare in Love, Gladiator, Erin Brockovich, A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Seabiscuit, Ray, Munich, Frost/Nixon, Inglourious Basterds, Les Misérables, The Wolf of Wall Street

Miramax/Weinstein Company — 27 nominations (Includes 7 Weinstein Co. nominations, which are the six on the end.)

My Left Foot, The Crying Game, The Piano, Pulp Fiction, Il Postino, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, Shakespeare in Love, Life is Beautiful, The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, In the Bedroom, Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, The Aviator, Finding Neverland, The Queen, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, The Reader, Inglourious Basterds, The King’s Speech, The Artist, Django Unchained, Silver Linings Playbook, Philomena

RKO Radio — 19 nominations

Cimarron, Little Women, The Gay Divorcee, Alice Adams, The Informer, Top Hat, Stage Door, Love Affair, Kitty Foyle, Citizen Kane, The Little Foxes, Suspicion, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Pride of the Yankees, The Bells of St. Mary’s, The Best Years of Our Lives, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Bishop’s Wife, Crossfire

Fox Searchlight — 11 nominations

The Full Monty, Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Slumdog Millionaire, Black Swan, 127 Hours, The Descendants, The Tree of Life, Beasts of the Southern Wild, 12 Years a Slave

Best Actress: No one’s ever officially clocked the performances, so there’s no general consensus, but if I have to guess, I’d say the major suspects are Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Nicole Kidman in The Hours (2002), and Frances McDormand in Fargo (1996). I’d be willing to wager the answer is one of those.

Best Supporting Actor: Also never officially clocked, but the general consensus is Anthony Quinn in Lust for Life (1956). Most people clock that at about 8 minutes.

Note: This also happened in 1931-1932, 1932-1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, but those lists had more than five nominees. It’s much easier to pull off when you only have to go 5 for 10 (or even 12) instead of 5 for 5.

Directors Who Directed the Most Best Picture Nominees:

William Wyler, 13 Best Picture nominees

Dodsworth, Dead End, Jezebel, Wuthering Heights, The Letter, The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Heiress, Roman Holiday, Friendly Persuasion, Ben-Hur, Funny Girl) and 3 winners (Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, Ben-Hur

John Ford, 9 Best Picture nominees

Arrowsmith, The Informer, Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home, How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man, Mister Roberts, How the West Was Won (segment)

Harold Russell, 1946, Best Supporting Actor, The Best Years of Our Lives

Mercedes McCambridge, 1949, Best Supporting Actress, All the King’s Men

Shirley Booth, 1952, Best Actress, Come Back, Little Sheba

Eva Marie Saint, 1954, Best Supporting Actress, On the Waterfront

Jo Van Fleet, 1955, Best Supporting Actress, East of Eden

Julie Andrews, 1964, Best Actress, Mary Poppins

Barbra Streisand, 1968, Best Actress, Funny Girl

Tatum O’Neal, 1973, Best Supporting Actress, Paper Moon

Haing S. Ngor, 1984, Best Supporting Actor, The Killing Fields

Marlee Matlin 1986, Best Actress, Children of a Lesser God

Anna Paquin, 1993, Best Supporting Actress, The Piano

Jennifer Hudson, 2006, Best Supporting Actress, Dreamgirls

Lupita Nyong’o, 2013, Best Supporting Actress, 12 Years a Slave

Directors Who Won Best Director for Their Debut Film:

Delbert Mann, Marty (1955)

Jerome Robbins, West Side Story (1961, shared with Robert Wise)

Robert Redford, Ordinary People (1980)

James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment (1983)

Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves (1990)

Sam Mendes, American Beauty (1999)

Directors Who Were Nominated For Best Director For Their Debut Film:

Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (1941)

Sidney Lumet, 12 Angry Men (1957)

Jack Clayon, Room at the Top (1959)

Frank Perry, David and Lisa (1962)

Mike Nichols, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Warren Beatty/Buck Henry, Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Rob Marshall, Chicago (2002)

Bennett Miller, Capote (2005)

Paul Haggis, Crash (2005)

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild(2012)

Actors Who Won Oscars Playing Real People Who Were Alive at the Time of the Ceremony:

1938, Spencer Tracy, Boys Town (Father Flanagan)

1941, Gary Cooper, Sergeant York (Alvin York)

1947, Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street (Kris Kringle)

1962, Patty Duke, The Miracle Worker (Helen Keller)

1967, Estelle Parsons, Bonnie and Clyde (Blanche Barrow)

1976, Jason Robards, All the President’s Men (Ben Bradlee)

1980, Robert De Niro, Raging Bull (Jake LaMotta)

1980, Sissy Spacek, Coal Miner’s Daughter (Loretta Lynn)

1984, Haing S. Ngor, The Killing Fields (Dith Pran)

1990, Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune (Claus von Bülow)

1995, Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking (Sister Helen Prejean)

1996, Geoffrey Rush, Shine (David Helfgott)

2000, Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich (Frank Stallone)

2001, Jim Broadbent, Iris (John Bayley)

2001, Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind (Alicia Nash)

2002, Chris Cooper, Adaptation. (John LaRoche)

2006, Helen Mirren, The Queen (Queen Elizabeth II)

2009, Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side (Leigh Anne Tuohy)

2010, Christian Bale, The Fighter (Dicky Eklund)

2010, Melissa Leo The Fighter (Alice Ward)

2011, Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady (Margaret Thatcher)

The “Hat Trick”: Winning for Producing, Directing and Writing a Film:

Leo McCarey, Going My Way (1944)

Billy Wilder, The Apartment (1960)

Francis Ford, Coppola, The Godfather Part II (1974)

James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment (1983)

Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Joel & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men (2007)

Best Picture Winners That Were the Highest-Grossing Films of Their Year:

The Broadway Melody(1929)

It Happened One Night(1934)

You Can’t Take It With You(1938)

Gone With the Wind(1939)

Possibly Mrs. Miniver(1942). Bambiwas #1 that year, but it’s so hard to pinpoint just how much the Disney movies actually made in their initial run. Bambiwas probably #1 that year, but I wanted to establish that it’s possible some #2 runners-up behind Disney films might have actually been #1. I’ll just mention them.

Possibly (and maybe even probably) The Best Years of Our Lives(1946). Song of the Southis #1 for that year, but some of that money is definitely from reissues.

Probably not The Greatest Show on Earth(1952). Even though This Is Cinerama‘sfigures are way too high for just 1952, I’d wager that it was without-a-doubt the number one film for that year.

The Bridge on the River Kwai(1957)

Ben-Hur(1959)

Possibly West Side Story(1961). One Hundred and One Dalmatianswas #1 that year.

Lawrence of Arabia(1962)

My Fair Lady(1964)

The Sound of Music(1965)

The Godfather(1972)

Rocky(1976)

Kramer vs. Kramer(1979)

Rain Man(1988)

Forrest Gump(1994). Lion Kingactually beat it, but apparently it’s overtaken it since then. But if we count the 3D release, then Lion Kingis back on top. Honestly, I say no on this one. I say it’s Lion King.

Titanic(1997)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King(2003). Eventually. It got released too late to really count, but now it’s #1.

– – – – –

Best Picture Nominees That Were the Highest-Grossing Films of Their Year (Not Counting Winners):

Shanghai Express(1932). Grand Hotelwas second.

Top Hat(1935)

San Francisco(1936)

Sergeant York(1941). How Green Was My Valleywas second.

For Whom the Bell Tolls(1943)

The Bells of St. Mary’s(1945)

Possibly Born Yesterday(1950). Cinderellais #1, but who knows if that’s actually the case.

Quo Vadis(1951)

Possibly The Robe (1953). Peter Panwas #1 from that year.

Possibly (though probably not, like most of these Disney years) Mister Roberts(1955). Lady and the Trampwas #1 that year.

The Ten Commandments(1956). Around the World in 80 Dayswas second.

Cleopatra(1963)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?(1966)

The Graduate(1967)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(1969). Midnight Cowboywas second.

Love Story(1970). Also of note, four of the five Best Picture nominees were the top four grossing films of that year. Airport, MASHand Patton were #2, #3 and #4, respectively, for 1970. Five Easy Pieceswas #16.

Fiddler on the Roof(1971). The French Connectionwas second.

The Exorcist(1973). The Stingwas second.

Jaws(1975)

Star Wars(1977)

Raiders of the Lost Ark(1981)

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial(1982)

Ghost(1990)

Avatar(2009)

Toy Story 3(2010)

– – – – –

Best Picture Winners by Run Time (shortest to longest):

Marty, 1955, 90 minutes

Annie Hall, 1977, 93 minutes

Driving Miss Daisy, 1989, 99 minutes

The Artist, 2011, 100 minutes

The Broadway Melody, 1929, 100 minutes

The Lost Weekend, 1945, 101 minutes

Casablanca, 1942 (won for 1943), 102 minutes

The French Connection, 1971, 104 minutes

It Happened One Night, 1934, 105 minutes

Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979, 105 minutes

On the Waterfront, 1954, 108 minutes

In the Heat of the Night, 109 minutes

All the King’s Men, 1949, 110 minutes

Cavalcade, 1933, 110 minutes

Crash, 2005, 112 minutes

Grand Hotel, 1932, 112 minutes

An American in Paris, 1951, 113 minutes

Chicago, 2002, 113 minutes

Midnight Cowboy, 1969, 113 minutes

Gigi, 1958, 115 minutes

The Life of Emile Zola, 1937, 116 minutes

From Here to Eternity, 1953, 118 minutes

Gentleman’s Agreement, 1947, 118 minutes

How Green Was My Valley, 1941, 118 minutes

The King’s Speech, 2010, 118 minutes

The Silence of the Lambs, 1991, 118 minutes

Rocky, 1976, 119 minutes

A Man for All Seasons, 1966, 120 minutes

Platoon, 1986, 120 minutes

Slumdog Millionaire, 2008, 120 minutes

Argo, 2012, 120 minutes

American Beauty, 1999, 122 minutes

No Country for Old Men, 2007, 122 minutes

Cimarron, 1931, 123 minutes

Shakespeare in Love, 1998, 123 minutes

Chariots of Fire, 1981, 124 minutes

Ordinary People, 1980, 124 minutes

The Apartment, 1960, 125 minutes

Going My Way, 1944, 126 minutes

You Can’t Take It With You, 1938, 126 minutes

Tom Jones, 1963, 128 minutes

The Sting, 1973, 129 minutes

Rebecca, 1940, 130 minutes

The Hurt Locker, 2009, 131 minutes

Terms of Endearment, 1983, 131 minutes

Unforgiven, 1992, 131 minutes

Million Dollar Baby, 2004, 132 minutes

Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935, 132 minutes

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975, 133 minutes

Rain Man, 1988, 133 minutes

12 Years a Slave, 2013, 134 minutes

Mrs. Miniver, 1942, 134 minutes

A Beautiful Mind, 2001, 135 minutes

All About Eve, 1950, 138 minutes

All Quiet on the Western Front, 1930, 138 minutes

Wings, 1927, 141 minutes

Forrest Gump, 142 minutes

The Departed, 2006, 151 minutes

The Greatest Show on Earth, 1952, 152 minutes

West Side Story, 1961, 152 minutes

Oliver!, 1968, 153 minutes

Gladiator, 2000, 155 minutes

Hamlet, 1948, 155 minutes

Amadeus, 1984, 160 minutes

The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957, 161 minutes

Out of Africa, 1985, 161 minutes

The English Patient, 1996, 162 minutes

The Last Emperor, 1987, 163 minutes

My Fair Lady, 1964, 170 minutes

The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946, 172 minutes

Patton, 1970, 172 minutes

The Sound of Music, 1965, 174 minutes

The Godfather, 1972, 175 minutes

The Great Ziegfeld, 1936, 176 minutes

Braveheart, 1995, 177 minutes

Dances with Wolves, 1990, 181 minutes

The Deer Hunter, 1978, 182 minutes

Around the World in 80 Days, 1956, 183 minutes

Gandhi, 1982, 191 minutes

Titanic, 1997, 194 minutes

Schindler’s List, 1993, 195 minutes

The Godfather Part II, 1974, 200 minutes

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003, 201 minutes

Ben-Hur, 1959, 212 minutes

Lawrence of Arabia, 1962, 216 minutes

Gone With the Wind, 1939, 238 minutes

Best Picture Nominees by Run Time (* = winner):

Under 90 minutes:

She Done Him Wrong (1932-1933), 66 min

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927-1928), 69 min

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), 75 min

One Hour with You (1931-1932), 80 min

Shanghai Express (1931-1932), 80 min

The White Parade (1934), 80 min

Wake Island (1942), 82 min

One Night of Love (1934), 83 min

Beauty and the Beast (1991), 84 min

The Divorcee (1929-1930), 84 min

The Racket (1927-1928), 84 min

Three Smart Girls (1936), 84 min

A Farewell to Arms (1932-1933), 85 min

High Noon (1952), 85 min

One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), 85 min

Skippy (1930-1931), 85 min

Crossfire (1947), 86 min

The Big House (1929-1930), 87 min

The Champ (1931-1932), 87 min

Here Comes the Navy (1934), 87 min

Love Affair (1939), 87 min

The Pied Piper (1942), 87 min

The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), 87 min

The House of Rothschild (1934), 88 min

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), 88 min

Five Star Final (1931-1932), 89 min

42nd Street (1932-1933), 89 min

The Smiling Lieutenant (1931-1932), 89 min

90-120 minutes

Alibi (1928-1929), 90 min

The Awful Truth (1937), 90 min

Bad Girl (1931-1932), 90 min

Disraeli (1929-1930), 90 min

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 90 min

The Sound of Music — “The More You See It, The More It Becomes One of Your Favorite Things!”

A Man for All Seasons — “A Motion Picture for All Times!”

In the Heat of the Night — “They Got a Murder on Their Hands… They Don’t Know What to Do with It”

Oliver! — “Much More Than a Musical!”

Midnight Cowboy — “Whatever You Hear About Midnight Cowboy Is True”

Patton— (Can’t find one)

The French Connection — “The Time is Just Right for an Out and Out Thriller Like This.”

The Godfather — “An Offer You Can’t Refuse”

The Sting — “All It Takes is a Little Confidence”

The Godfather Part II — “Until You See ‘The Godfather, Part II’, You Don’t Know the Godfather Story!”

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — “If He’s Crazy, What Does That Make You?”

Rocky — “His Whole Life Was a Million-to-One Shot”

Annie Hall — “A Nervous Romance”

The Deer Hunter — “One of the Most Important and Powerful Films of All Time!”

Kramer vs. Kramer — “There Are Three Sides to This Love Story!”

Ordinary People— “Some Films You Watch, Others You Feel”

Chariots of Fire — “This is the Story of Two Men Who Run… Not to Run… But to Prove Something to the World. They will Sacrifice Anything to Achieve their Goals…Except Their Honor.”

Gandhi — “His Triumph Changed the World Forever”

Terms of Endearment — “Come to Laugh, Come to Cry, Come to Care, Come to Terms”

Amadeus — “The Man. The Music. The Magic. The Madness. The Murder. The Mystery. The Motion Picture”

Out of Africa — “Based on a True Story”

Platoon — “The First Casualty of War is Innocence”

The Last Emperor — “He was the Lord of Ten Thousand Years, the Absolute Monarch of China. He was Born to Rule a World of Ancient Tradition. Nothing Prepared Him for Our World of Change”

Rain Man — (Can’t find one)

Driving Miss Daisy — “The Funny, Touching and Totally Irresistible Story of a Working Relationship That Became a 25-Year Friendship”

Dances with Wolves — “Inside Everyone is a Frontier Waiting to Be Discovered”

The Silence of the Lambs — “To Enter the Mind of a Killer She Must Challenge the Mind of a Madman”

Unforgiven — (Can’t find one)

Schindler’s List — “Whoever Saves One Life, Saves the World Entire”

Forrest Gump — “The Story of a Lifetime”

Braveheart — “He who Fought, Fought for Freedom”

The English Patient — “In Love There are No Boundaries”

Titanic — “Nothing on Earth Could Come Between Them”

Shakespeare in Love — “A Comedy About the Greatest Love Story Almost Never Told”

American Beauty — “Look Closer”

Gladiator — “A General who Became a Slave. A Slave who Became a Gladiator. A Gladiator who Defied an Emperor”

A Beautiful Mind — “The Only Thing Greater Than the Power of the Mind is the Courage of the Heart”

Chicago — “With the Right Song and Dance, You Can Get Away with Murder”

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King — “This Christmas the Journey Ends”

Million Dollar Baby — Beyond His Silence, There is a Past. Beyond Her Dreams, There is a Feeling. Beyond Hope, There is a Memory. Beyond Their Journey, There is a Love”

Crash — “You Think You Know who You Are. You Have No Idea.”

The Departed — “Lies. Betrayal. Sacrifice. How Far Will You Take It?”

No Country for Old Men — “There Are No Clean Getaways”

Slumdog Millionaire — “Love and Money… You Have Mixed Them Both”

The Hurt Locker — “You’ll Know When You’re In It”

The King’s Speech — “Find Your Voice”

The Artist — (Can’t find one)

Argo— “The Movie Was Fake. The Mission Was Real”

12 Years a Slave— “The Extraordinary True Story of Solomon Northup”

List of Best Picture Presenters:

1927-1928: Douglas Fairbanks (Wings)

1928-1929: William C. deMille (The Broadway Melody)

1929-1930: Louis B. Mayer (All Quiet on the Western Front)

1930-1931: B.P. Schulberg (Cimarron)

1931-1932: William LeBaron (Grand Hotel)

1932-1933: Will Rogers (Cavalcade)

1934: Irvin S. Cobb (It Happened One Night)

1935: Harry Cohn (Mutiny on the Bounty)

1936: George Jessel (The Great Ziegfeld)

1937: Frank Capra (The Life of Emile Zola)

1938: James Roosevelt (You Can’t Take It With You)

1939: Y. Frank Freeman (Gone With the Wind)

1940: Mervyn LeRoy (Rebecca)

1941: David O. Selznick (How Green Was My Valley)

1942: William Goetz (Mrs. Miniver)

1943: Sidney Franklin (Casablanca)

1944: Hal B. Wallis (Going My Way)

1945: Eric Johnston (The Lost Weekend)

1946: Eric Johnston (The Best Years of Our Lives)

1947: Frederic March (Gentleman’s Agreement)

1948: Ethel Barrymore (Hamlet)

1949: James Cagney (All the King’s Men)

1950: James Cagney (All About Eve)

1951: Danny Kaye (An American in Paris)

1952: Mary Pickford (The Greatest Show on Earth)

1953: Cecil B. DeMille (From Here to Eternity)

1954: Buddy Adler (On the Waterfront)

1955: Audrey Hepburn (Marty)

1956: Janet Gaynor (Around the World in 80 Days)

1957: Gary Cooper (The Bridge on the River Kwai)

1958: Ingrid Bergman (Gigi)

1959: Gary Cooper (Ben-Hur)

1960: Audrey Hepburn (The Apartment)

1961: Fred Astaire (West Side Story)

1962: Olivia de Havilland (Lawrence of Arabia)

1963: Frank Sinatra (Tom Jones)

1964: Gregory Peck (My Fair Lady)

1965: Jack Lemmon (The Sound of Music)

1966: Audrey Hepburn (A Man for All Seasons)

1967: Julie Andrews (In the Heat of the Night)

1968: Sidney Poitier (Oliver!)

1969: Elizabeth Taylor (Midnight Cowboy)

1970: Steve McQueen (Patton)

1971: Jack Nicholson (The French Connection)

1972: Clint Eastwood (The Godfather)

1973: Elizabeth Taylor (The Sting)

1974: Warren Beatty (The Godfather Part II)

1975: Audrey Hepburn (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest)

1976: Jack Nicholson (Rocky)

1977: Jack Nicholson (Annie Hall)

1978: John Wayne (The Deer Hunter)

1979: Charlton Heston (Kramer vs. Kramer)

1980: Lillian Gish (Ordinary People)

1981: Loretta Young (Chariots of Fire)

1982: Carol Burnett (Gandhi)

1983: Frank Capra (Terms of Endearment)

1984: Laurence Olivier (Amadeus)

1985: John Huston, Akira Kurosawa & Billy Wilder (Out of Africa)

1986: Dustin Hoffman (Platoon)

1987: Eddie Murphy (The Last Emperor)

1988: Cher (Rain Man)

1989: Warren Beatty & Jack Nicholson (Driving Miss Daisy)

1990: Barbra Streisand (Dances with Wolves)

1991: Paul Newman & Elizabeth Taylor (The Silence of the Lambs)

1992: Jack Nicholson (Unforgiven)

1993: Harrison Ford (Schindler’s List)

1994: Robert De Niro & Al Pacino (Forrest Gump)

1995: Sidney Poitier (Braveheart)

1996: Al Pacino (The English Patient)

1997: Sean Connery (Titanic)

1998: Harrison Ford (Shakespeare in Love)

1999: Clint Eastwood (American Beauty)

2000: Michael Douglas (Gladiator)

2001: Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Mind)

2002: Kirk Douglas & Michael Douglas (Chicago)

2003: Steven Spielberg (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)

2004: Dustin Hoffman & Barbra Streisand (Million Dollar Baby)

2005: Jack Nicholson (Crash)

2006: Diane Keaton & Jack Nicholson (The Departed)

2007: Denzel Washington (No Country for Old Men)

2008: Steven Spielberg (Slumdog Millionaire)

2009: Tom Hanks (The Hurt Locker)

2010: Steven Spielberg (The King’s Speech)

2011: Tom Cruise (The Artist)

2012: Jack Nicholson and Michelle Obama (Argo)

2013: Will Smith (12 Years a Slave)

Random Factoids:

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is the only film in the history of the Academy to be nominated in every category it was eligible to be nominated in.

Only three films have ever been nominated for Best Picture and nothing else: Grand Hotel (1932-1933), One Foot in Heaven (1941), and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).

Teresa Wright is the only actress to be nominated for Oscars for her first three films, which were The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver and The Pride of the Yankees. She won for Mrs. Miniver. (Also, two of her next three films after these three were Shadow of a Doubt and The Best Years of Our Lives.)

From Here to Eternity is the last Best Picture winner to be nominated in all four acting categories. American Hustleis the most recent Best Picture nominee to be nominated in all four acting categories.

Marlon Brando holds the record for most consecutive Best Actor nominations (4, 1951, A Streetcar Named Desire, 1952, Viva Zapata!, 1953, Julius Caesar, 1954, On the Waterfront).

Thelma Ritter holds the record for most consecutive Best Supporting Actress nominations (4, 1950, All About Eve, 1951, The Mating Season, 1952, With a Song in My Heart, 1953, Pickup on South Street.)

Bing Crosby is the only person to reprise his Oscar-winning role and be nominated again for it.

Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth II), Peter O’Toole (Henry II), Paul Newman (“Fast” Eddie Felson) and Al Pacino (Michael Corleone) are the only other people to reprise an Oscar-nominated role (they didn’t win for) and be nominated again for it. Newman actually won the second time.

Paul Muni is the only actor whose first (The Valiant) and last (The Last Angry Man) screen performances were nominated for Oscars.

The Battle of Algiers is the only film to be nominated in two non-consecutive years (Best Foreign Language Film in 1966 and Best Adapted Screenplay in 1968.)

Since the Supporting categories were added (1936), only three times did the top six categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress) go to six completely different films:

1952 —The Greatest Show on Earth, The Quiet Man, High Noon, Come Back Little Sheba, Viva Zapata!, The Bad and the Beautiful

1956 — Around the World in 80 Days, Giant, The King and I, Anastasia, Lust for Life, Written on the Wind

Laurence Olivier, Michael Douglas and George Clooney are the only three actors to win both Best Picture and an acting award. Olivier won for Hamlet. Douglas won Best Picture for producing One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Best Actor for Wall Street. Clooney won Best Supporting Actor for Syrianaand Best Picture for producing Argo.

Now’s also a good time to mention — Walt Disney and George Clooney are the only people to be nominated across six different Oscar categories. Walt’s categories are: Best Picture, Best Short Subject – Cartoons, Best Documentary, Best Short Subject — Two-reel, Best Documentary – Short Subject, and Best Short Subject — Live Action Subjects. Clooney’s (which are more impressive) are: Best Picture (Argo, win), Best Director (Good Night and Good Luck, nominated), Best Actor (Michael Clayton, nominated, Up in the Air, nominated,and The Descendants, nominated), Best Supporting Actor (Syriana, win), Best Original Screenplay (Good Night and Good Luck) and Best Adapted Screenplay (The Ides of March).

Warren Beatty has five categories to his name (the same as Clooney, only he never got a Supporting Actor nomination). Unlike Clooney, he only has one win.

Other people with nominations over five categories are: Joel & Ethan Coen (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing (4 wins)), Stanley Kubrick (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Visual Effects (1 win)), and Kenneth Branagh (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Live Action Short (0 wins)).

In 1965, Julie Christie won Best Actress for Darling. She was also in Doctor Zhivago that same year. Both of those films won the Original and Adapted Screenplay categories for that year.

Frances McDormand is the only person to be directed to an acting win by their spouse (Joel Coen).

Melina Mercouri (Never on Sunday), Joanne Woodward (Rachel, Rachel), Gena Rowlands (A Woman Under the Influence), Julie Andrews (Victor/Victoria) and Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) were also directed to nominations by their spouses. (Not counting Susan Sarandon for Dead Man Walking. I’m only including official marriages, since — there are lots of instances of people sleeping together and making a picture. The Sarandon one is the closest to counting, but — they broke up. So I mention it, but don’t officially inclue it.)

Vanessa Redgrave (Morgan!) & Lynn Redgrave (Georgy Girl), and Olivia de Havilland (Hold Back the Dawn) & Joan Fontaine (Suspicion) are the only siblings to be nominated for Oscars in the same category in the same year. (Fontaine won.)

Warren Beatty (Best Director for Reds) and Shirley MacLaine (Best Actress for Terms of Endearment) are also sibling Oscar-winners (along with de Havilland and Fontaine).

Jodie Foster is the only actress to win two Best Actress Awards (1988, The Accused, 1991, The Silence of the Lambs) before the age of 30 in two non-consecutive years.

Bette Davis (1935, Dangerous, 1938, Jezebel) and Hilary Swank (1999, Boys Don’t Cry, 2004, Million Dollar Baby) both won their second award in their 31st year.

Luise Rainer won Best Actress in consecutive years (1936, The Great Ziegfeld, 1937, The Good Earth) at ages 26 and 27.

Each time Jack Nicholson has won an Oscar (1975, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Best Actor), 1983, Terms of Endearment (Best Supporting Actor), 1997, As Good As It Gets (Best Actor)), his leading lady in that film (Louise Fletcher, Shirley MacLaine, Helen Hunt, respectively) won Best Actress for that film.

Glenda Jackson (1970, Women in Love) is the first actress whose Best Actress-winning performance contained a nude scene.

Only five actors have been nominated for performances for roles in which they do not speak a word (which means Marlee Matlin doesn’t count): Jane Wyman (in Johnny Belinda), Patty Duke (in The Miracle Worker), Holly Hunter (in The Piano), Samantha Morton (in Sweet and Lowdown) and Rinko Kikuchi (in Babel). Some might argue Patty Duke does speak a word, but compared to Marlee Matlin, I’m rounding toward this list. Also, you’ll notice that we have three deaf (one deaf and blind) and two mute. And an alarmingly high percentage of wins.

(Amateur hour. You better know this.) Walt Disney has the most Oscars. He won 22.

(More amateur hour stuff). The DGA and Best Director Oscar have differed only seven times (not counting an unofficial eighth, where Joseph Mankiewicz won the DGA for A Letter to Three Wivesin 1948, but won the Oscar for Best Director for the film in 1949. It was the first year the DGA Awards were given out, so most people overlook that one, since technically it did match up): 1968 — the DGA winner was Anthony Harvey for The Lion in Winterand the Oscar winner was Carol Reed for Oliver!, 1972 — the DGA winner was Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfatherand the Oscar winner was Bob Fosse for Cabaret. 1985 — the DGA winner was Steven Spielberg for The Color Purpleand the Oscar winner was Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa(Spielberg wasn’t even nominated). 1995 — the DGA winner was Ron Howard for Apollo 13and the Oscar winner was Mel Gibson for Braveheart(Howard wasn’t even nominated). 2000 — the DGA winner was Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonand the Oscar winner was Steven Soderbergh for Traffic. 2002 — the DGA winner was Rob Marshall for Chicago and the Oscar winner was Roman Polanski for The Pianist. And 2012 — the DGA winner was Ben Affleck for Argoand the Oscar winner was Ang Lee for Life of Pi (Affleck wasn’t even nominated). Ang Lee is the only person to be involved in more than one of these instances.

This is one of my favorite facts: The Red Balloon is the only non-feature to win a Best Screenplay award. It’s also the only film without dialogue to win Best Screenplay. (Showing you the strength of a good story. Hollywood…)

Only Anthony Quinn (1952, Best Supporting Actor, Viva Zapata! & 1956, Best Supporting Actor, Lust for Life), Jason Robards (1976, Best Supporting Actor, All the President’s Men & 1977, Best Supporting Actor, Julia) and Daniel Day-Lewis (1989, Best Actor, My Left Foot& 2012, Lincoln) have won multiple Oscars for playing real people. No one else with multiple Oscars has won for playing more than one real person.

And while we’re here, the only actors to win more than one Supporting Oscar are: Walter Brennan (1936, Come and Get It, 1938, Kentucky and 1940, The Westerner), Anthony Quinn (1952, Viva Zapata! and 1956, Lust for Life), Shelley Winters (1959, The Diary of Anne Frank and 1965, A Patch of Blue), Peter Ustinov (1960, Spartacus and 1964, Topkapi), Melvyn Douglas (1963, Hud and 1979, Being There), Jason Robards (1976, All the President’s Men and 1977, Julia), Michael Caine (1986, Hannah and Her Sisters and 1999, The Cider House Rules), Dianne Wiest (1986, Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994, Bullets over Broadway) and Christoph Waltz (2009, Inglourious Basterds and 2012 Django Unchained).

Only three foreign language films (that is, films that feature a language other than English spoken for a large percentage of its run time) have won Best Picture: The Godfather Part II, The Last Emperor and Slumdog Millionaire.

At the 1928-1929 Oscars, no film won more than one award. That has never happened before or since (and will likely never happen again).

William Wyler directed 35 actors to Oscar nominations (with 13 wins).

Taylor Hackford is the only director to have directed two black actors to Oscar-winning performances (Louis Gossett Jr., Jamie Foxx)

The only films to win Best Picture and Best Song are Going My Way, Gigi, Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Slumdog Millionaire.

Frederic March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and Lee Marvin (Cat Ballou) are the only actors who won an Oscar for a dual-role. (Technically Laurence Olivier counts too, since he was both Hamlet and the voice of the ghost in Hamlet. But fuck that.)

Spencer Tracy (1937, Captains Courageous, 1938, Boys Town) and Tom Hanks (1993, Philadelphia, 1994, Forrest Gump) are the only two actors to win back-to-back Best Actor Oscars. Coincidentally, both did it at the exact same ages, 37 for the first Oscar and 38 for the second.

Only two films won Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay but not Best Picture.

The Informer (1935. Lost to Mutiny on the Bounty)

The Pianist (2002. Lost to Chicago)

Emma Thompson is the only person to have an acting Oscar (1992, Howards End) and a writing Oscar (1995, Sense and Sensibility).

Cate Blanchett (The Aviator, Katharine Hepburn, won) and Robert Downey Jr. (Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin) are the only actors in history to be nominated for an Oscar for playing an Oscar-winning actor.

No Best Actress winner in the 1950s appeared in a Best Picture winner.

On-the-nose, but it must be said. There have only been six ties in Academy history. They were in 1931-1932 for Best Actor (Wallace Beery for The Champ and Frederic March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. March received one more vote than Beery, but under then Academy rules, anything less than three votes became a tie), 1949 for Best Documentary Short (A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little), 1968 for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter and Barbra Streisand for Funny Lady), 1986 for Best Documentary (Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Gotand Down and Out in America), 1994 for Best Live-Action Short (Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Trevor) and 2012 for Best Sound Editing (Skyfalland Zero Dark Thirty).

Mutiny on the Bounty is the first remake to win Best Picture. Ben-Hur is the second. My Fair Lady the third. The Departed, fourth. (Technically, Marty is a big-screen remake of a teleplay. Also, Titanic and Chicago (and to some extent, The Departed) are partly based on earlier films, though the latter is based on the musical that was based on the film (which was based on a play), and the former really only has the sinking of the ship in common. It’s not really a remake at all.)

Moulin Rouge! and Heaven Can Wait are also both remakes of earlier Best Picture nominees (Moulin Rouge from 1952 and Here Comes Mr. Jordan from 1941).

The Godfather Part II is the first sequel to win Best Picture. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the second.

The Bells of St. Mary’s is the first sequel to be nominated for Best Picture.

Only The Lord of the Rings and The Godfather have had every film in their trilogies nominated for Best Picture.

Skippy is the first and only (thus far) film to be based on a comic book/strip or graphic novel to be nominated for Best Picture.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the first Shakespeare adaptation to be nominated for Best Picture.

The Fugitive is the first film to be based on a television series and be nominated for Best Picture. (The most recent is Traffic.)

Toy Story 3 is the only sequel to be nominated for Best Picture without its predecessors being nominated.

Despicable Me 2is the only sequel to be nominated for Best Animated Feature nominee where the initial entry in the franchise was not previously nominated in the category.

She Done Him Wrong is the shortest film to be nominated for Best Picture (run time: 66 minutes).

Gone With the Wind is the longest film to be nominated for Best Picture (run time: 238 minutes. Though without overture/intermission/entr’acte and exit music, it’s 224 minutes).

The character of Henry VIII was nominated for an Oscar three times (1932-1933, Best Actor, Charles Laughton, The Private Life of Henry VIII (won), 1966, Best Supporting Actor, Robert Shaw, A Man for All Seasons, 1969, Best Actor, Richard Burton, Anne of the Thousand Days)

Also, curiously, both times two people were nominated for playing the same character (younger and older versions) in the same film, Kate Winslet played the younger character both times. First was in Titanic. She was younger Rose, while Gloria Stuart was Old Rose. And the second was in Iris, where she was young Iris and Judi Dench was old Iris.

And also, in 1998, both Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench were both nominated (with Judi winning) for playing Queen Elizabeth I, in separate films.

The only films to win Best Director but not be nominated for Best Picture are Two Arabian Knights (won Best Director, 1927-1928 for Lewis Milestone in the Comedy category) and The Divine Lady (won Best Director in 1928-1929 for Frank Lloyd).

Only four films have won Best Picture without a Best Director nomination: 1927-1928, Wings, 1931-1932, Grand Hotel, 1989, Driving Miss Daisy, and 2012, Argo.

(Child’s Play. This is a fact everybody knows) Barry Fitzgerald is the only actor to be nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for the same performance (Going My Way).

Only Barry Fitzgerald (1944), Al Pacino (1992), Jamie Foxx (2004) have been nominated for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in the same year. All three came away with an Oscar (Pacino and Foxx won lead, while Fitzgerald won Supporting).

On the female side, Fay Bainter (1938), Teresa Wright (1942), Jessica Lange (1982), Sigourney Weaver (1988), Holly Hunter (1993), Emma Thompson (1993), Julianne Moore (2002) and Cate Blanchett (2007) were all nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in the same year. Hunter is the only one to win lead. Bainter, Wright, and Lange won Supporting. Weaver, Thompson, Moore and Blanchett came away with nothing.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) was the first film to win Best Picture to be released on home video before winning Best Picture.

Only John Ford (1940, The Grapes of Wrath, 1941, How Green Was My Valley) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949, A Letter to Three Wives, 1950, All About Eve) won consecutive Best Director Oscars. (Mankiewicz actually won both Best Director and Best Screenplay in consecutive years.)

Only three black directors have ever been nominated for Best Director: 1991, John Singleton, Boyz N the Hood, 2009, Lee Daniels, Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, and 2013, Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave.

Only four women have ever been nominated for Best Director (one twice): 1976, Lina Wermuller, Seven Beauties, 1993, Jane Campion, The Piano, 2003, Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation, 2009, Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker, 2009. You better fucking know which one of them won.)

The only films to have their entire speaking casts nominated for awards were: Sleuth (1972), Give ‘Em Hell, Harry (1975), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). The first had two cast members, the second had one, the third had four. (Also, Doubt (2008) had its entire credited cast nominated for Oscars, but not its entire speaking cast.)

Only four times were a duo nominated for Best Director: 1961, West Side Story (Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins), 1978, Heaven Can Wait (Warren Beatty & Buck Henry), 2007, No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen) and 2010, True Grit (Joel & Ethan Coen). (Only Joel was officially nominated for Fargo.)

Only three times was a director (officially) nominated for Best Director twice in the same category: 1929-1930, Clarence Brown (Anna Christie & Romance), 1938, Michael Curtiz (Angels with Dirty Faces & Four Daughters) and 2000, Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich & Traffic.)

A Streetcar Named Desire and Network are the only two films to win three acting awards.

Both Bette Davis (1938, Jezebel, 1939, Dark Victory, 1940, The Letter, 1941, The Little Foxes, 1942, Now, Voyager) and Greer Garson (1941, Blossoms in the Dust, 1942, Mrs. Miniver, 1943, Madame Curie, 1944,Mrs. Parkington, 1945, The Valley of Decision) are the only two actresses nominated for five consecutive Best Actress Oscars (the only actors to have five consecutive nominations, period).

Also, for trivia purposes, Garson was nominated in 1939 for Goodbye, Mr. Chips and missed in 1940, and Davis missed in 1943 and was nominated in 1944 for Mr. Skeffington. This means that, from 1938-1945, Bette Davis and/or Greer Garson were nominated for Best Actress (and both were nominated in the same category four times).

Other actors to be nominated for Oscars in four consecutive years (I already said Brando and Ritter up there) are:

Jennifer Jones (1943, Best Actress, The Song of Bernadette, 1944, Best Supporting Actress, Since You Went Away, 1945, Best Actress, Love Letters, 1946, Best Actress, Duel in the Sun)

Al Pacino (1972, Best Supporting Actor, The Godfather, 1973, Best Actor Serpico, 1974, Best Actor, The Godfather Part II, 1975, Best Actor, Dog Day Afternoon)

Jeff Bridges is the only person to be nominated for Best Actor for playing a non-human character (Starman).

Luise Rainer, Vivien, Hilary Swank, Helen Hayes and Kevin Spacey are the only actors to win two Oscars for their only two nominated roles.

The shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar was Hermione Baddeley for Room at the Top. The entire performance was 2 minutes, 32 seconds of screen time.

Greg P. Russell holds the record for total nominations without a win (16). Randy Newman used to hold the record, until he won on his 15th nomination.

John Williams holds the record for living person with the most nominations, with 49.

Jason Robards is the only actor to win consecutive Supporting Oscars.

(Another basic Oscar trivia fact) Limelight (1952) won Best Original Score at the 1972 Oscars, twenty years after the film was released. The reason for this was because, in order for a film to be eligible for Academy Awards, it must have screened in Los Angeles, which Limelight did not do until 1972. The Godfather‘s score was also deemed ineligible, which allowed the film to become nominated and win. (This was also Charlie Chaplin’s only competitive Oscar win.)

Of the 22 films to win Best Director but not Best Picture, seven of those wins went either to George Stevens (1951, 1956), John Ford (1935, 1940, 1952) or Ang Lee (2005, 20112).

Flora Robson (1945, Saratoga Trunk), Jeanne Crain (1949, Pinky), and Susan Kohner (1959, Imitation of Life) are the only whites to be nominated for playing black characters. (Technically, Crain and Kohner played half-white/half-black characters, so they were able to get away with it, especially since their being fair-skinned is a major part of the story. Only the Robson performance is truly racist. Note: Holy shit.)

Note: Robert Downey Jr.’s character in Tropic Thunder was technically a white man. (See? I know how you think. I’m all over that shit.)

No Asian females have ever been nominated for Best Actress. (Luise Rainer won one for playing an Asian, but no actual Asians have ever been nominated.)

Tim Robbins (Mystic River) and Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking). Her former husband Chris Sarandon was also nominated for Dog Day Afternoon.

Diane Keaton (Annie Hall) and Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Best Director). She was also linked with Warren Beatty during Reds, which he won Best Director for. This isn’t really as solid as the ones who were actually married.

Six married couples (technically married, since one of these was definitely a beard situation) were nominated for acting Oscars in the same year:

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardener — him for From Here to Eternity, her for Mogambo, 1953.

Rex Harrison and Rachel Roberts — him for Cleopatra and her for This Sporting Life, 1963.

Note: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are not technically married, so him being nominated for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and her being nominated for Changeling in 2008 doesn’t count. (See? I know where you were going with that.)

Also, William Powell and Carole Lombard are the only divorced couple to both be nominated for the same film — My Man Godfrey, 1936.

And while we’re here, there are also some famous families whose members have won Oscars (or were nominated):

The Hustons: Walter won Best Supporting Actor for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, John also won for Sierra Madre, Best Director and Best Screenplay, and Anjelica won Best Supporting Actress for Prizzi’s Honor (also directed by John). (John and Walter were also nominated a bunch of other times.)

The Barrymores: Lionel won Best Actor for A Free Soul and was nominated for Best Director for Best Director for Madame X. Ethel won Best Supporting Actress for None But the Lonely Heart (and was nominated a couple other times).

The Minnellis: Vincente won Best Director for Gigi (was nominated other times as well), Liza won Best Actress for Cabaret (and was nominated again as well), and Judy Garland won an honorary Oscar for The Wizard of Oz.

The Coppolas: Francis won Best Director for The Godfather Part II and Best Screenplay for Patton, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Carmine won Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II, Sofia won Best Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and Nic Coppola (aka Cage) won Best Actor for Leaving Las Vegas.

The Douglases: Kirk Douglas was nominated for Best Actor 3 times (1949, Champion, 1952, The Bad and the Beautiful, and 1956, Lust for Life), and his son, Michael Douglas, won Best Actor for Wall Street, 1987 (and Best Picture for One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975).

And then for fun: Jon Voight (Coming Home, 1978, plus 3 other nominations) and his daughter, Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted, 1999, plus one other nomination), both have Oscars. And Goldie Hawn (Cactus Flower, 1969) and her daughter, Kate Hudson (Almost Famous, 2000) were both nominated for Oscars (Goldie won). So were the Phoenix brothers (River, Running on Empty, 1987, and Joaquin, Gladiator, 2000. Joaquin was also nominated for Walk the Line in 2005). And Meg (Agnes of God, 1985) and Jennifer (Bullets over Broadway, 1994) Tilly. Raymond Massey (Abe Lincoln in Illinois, 1940) and his son, Daniel Massey (Star!, 1968) were also both nominated. And there’s also Ryan (Love Story, 1970) and Tatum (Paper Moon, 1973) O’Neal.

Also, Diane Ladd and Laura Dern are the only mother/daughter combination to be nominated for being in the same film (Rambling Rose).

And, of course, the big Oscar fact, that always bears repeating: John Cazale only appeared in five films in his entire career — The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter — and all five were nominated for Best Picture (3 wins).

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